The Landscape Hydrology Model (LHM) is a new landscape hydrology simulation suite capable of very large domain, fine resolution modeling. It simulates nearly the entire terrestrial hydrologic cycle with full energy- and water-balance physically-based component modules. LHM incorporates a host of novel components, but integrates fully with the USGS MODFLOW software, and allows existing MODFLOW simulations to run with little modification.

Structure

LHM is written primarily in MATLAB, with a number of ArcGIS interface modules written in Python. It is coupled with MODFLOW using a pass-to-disk coupling, which requires a slight modification of the MODFLOW source code. Currently, the plan is to migrate fully to Python within the next year, as Python provides a much more robust development environment, and greater possibilities for GUI front end development.

Release

LHM is currently nearing public release. If you are interested in previewing the software, or collaborating on its development, contact Anthony Kendall. The software and all associated model development tools will be released under an open source license. It is the intention of the developers that LHM be adopted by the broader community as a tool for landscape hydrologic simulations at a variety of spatial scales.

Developers

LHM was developed at Michigan State University primarily by Anthony Kendall and Dr. David Hyndman. The work of students including Dushmantha Jayawickreme, Nicklaus Welty, and Cheryl Kendall was critical to the development of earlier versions of the software.